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Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Watching a student grow is a delight. Some students I have the pleasure of getting to know over four years. Stephanie Desrochers is a student that I had as a freshmen, sophomore and senior. This year Stephanie was enrolled inDrawing and Painting II ( the only senior in Drawing and Painting II, she was grouped with Drawing and Painting I). This course allowed Stephanie time to create art at a self directed pace.

Stephanie will be heading off to Colby College. She is going to pursue a double major in Neuroscience and Studio Art. Stephanie was very inspired by our guest artist Randy Garber and is planning on studying Printmaking.

Below is a collection of work from Stephanie's freshmen year to senior year. You can really see the growth and development of skill, content and ideas.

Stephanie's Art from Design Class Freshmen Year

Stephanie's Art from Drawing and Painting I her Sophomore Year

Stephanie's Art from Drawing and Painting II Senior Year

This body of work represents Stephanie's concentration during the second half of the year. Here is a portion of Stephanie's artist statement:

I have begun to focus on very specific, detailed art. I began a series of mixed media pieces last quarter, and have continued them with various themes. The one piece that I completed this quarter involves various kinds of art, including origami, printing, and portraiture. I love science and fantasy, so I combined these two to create a technology/cyborg piece. I have also begun work on the third piece of this collection with a steampunk theme, involving machinery and Victorian Era style.

Stephanie also wrote a wonderful statement about how she finds inspiration:

Finding Inspiration in the Simplicity of ExistenceI am inspired by basically anything and everything. Rather than having some sort of metaphysical or deep inspiration, simple and everyday things strike me as more beautiful than anything else. I love finding patterns and perfection as you observe things more and more closely. On the cellular, and even molecular level, the repetition and patterns of existence are fascinating. Form is just so interesting, and the shape of something changes in every way you observe it.

Besides just everything, particular parts of life strike me more personally. I am particularly inspired by two totally different facets of my life: imagination and science. As far as imagination, I have always loved fairy tales. I like to draw them how they appear in my head when I read them or listen to them. There are so many depictions of the same story that I can be inspired by many different artists and styles. Film, graphic art, abstract art, and cartoon can all depict fairy tales. I just love the whimsical nature of the stories, which can be combined to create steam punk, surrealism, or cartoons. I also have a very ordered, logical, and scientific mind. I definitely find beauty in the small mysteries of life. I draw things I see under the microscope and even hypothetical quantum mechanical models of molecules. From biology to chemistry, the microcosm of life is very interesting. Math tie into this too-all of our existence is based on mathematical formulas, proportions, and numbers. I like to include these in my pieces. In my personal life, I am inspired by another art form-dance. Movement, shape, and music inspire my illustrative art.

Inspiration for me can come from anywhere at anytime. I can just look at something and see how it is unique, how it has color, how it has pattern. I will pretty much make art with any inspiration and put my own twist on it. I can even be inspired by inspiration.